An investigation in to the impact of acquisition location on error type and rate when undertaking panoramic radiography.

INTRODUCTION: Panoramic radiography is a common radiographic examination carried out in the UK. This study was carried out to determine if acquisition site has an impact on image quality.

METHODS: An image quality audit was carried out in South Wales across a number of dental and general radiology settings. The image quality was assessed retrospectively against national standards. A total of 174 radiographs were assessed from general radiology departments and 141 from dental radiology units. Chi-squared analysis was used to investigate whether there were differences in the grading between dental radiology units and general radiology departments. Differences between the two settings in terms of the number of errors in the radiographs was analysed using the Mann-Whitney test. Chi-squared analysis was used to see if there were differences between the types of errors in the two clinical settings.

RESULTS: There was a significant association (p = 0.021) between the quality of the radiograph grading and type of radiology department. However when excellent and diagnostically acceptable radiographs were grouped together there was no significant difference between the two clinical settings. Although the vast majority of radiographs were diagnostic (89% for general radiology and 92% for dental radiology units), neither reached the required standards. The most common errors were patient positioning errors (54.6% radiographs affected) and preparation/instructional errors (47.9% radiographs affected).

CONCLUSION: Errors in panoramic radiography are relatively high and further instruction to staff undertaking these procedures is required to ensure the targets are reached.